It is a standing problem that these consumer packings can be difficult to handle, particularly for people with small or rheumatic hands, as the cartons are then a little too large.
On that background, carrier handle units have already been proposed which are more or less easy to mount, e.g. on milk cartons of the type made of a square carton sleeve having an upper roof edge folding, which is openable at one end and has an outwardly open cavity at the opposite end. This cavity is well suited to receive a carrier head on a carton surrounding portion mounted in a lower position around the carton itself, and when this or these portions are furthermore connected with a projecting handle member, the carton will thus be provided with a useful, easily seizable holder and pourer handle.
Such a handle unit is known e.g. from U.S. Pat. No. 2,992,847, where the carton surrounding portion is a four-sided plate ring adapted to be lowered over the upper end of the carton. At one of its sides, the plate ring is provided with an outwardly and downwardly projecting handle, which has at its top end a pivot pawl with a carrier head portion that can be swung into the said cavity and thus be brought into carrier engagement with the carton, while for demounting of the unit it can be swung outwardly from this engagement. It is unsuitable, however, that such a holder should consist of more parts, and in use the carrier head might incidentally be swung out of its engagement with the carton, whereby an annoying operational failure may occur. Furthermore, the positioning of a holder ring at the very top of the carton is not too good, since by pouring with the carton a rather powerful breaking influence on the carton will occur at that place.
In another known handle unit, cf. U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,074, the handle member is provided as a double wire loop, the upper end of which continues in a widened carrier head portion for introduction into the said cavity, while at the lower end the wire continues in a wire shaped surrounding portion around the carton. The wire is a spring wire that enables the carrier head portion to be brought into the cavity after the lowering of the surrounding portion over the carton, but since the connection between the surrounding portion and the carrier head portion is an outwardly bent handle portion of spring wire there will not be obtained any rigid or stiff engagement with the carton, which makes the handle unit uncomfortable in use. In a special embodiment the surrounding portion consists of two side wire hooks, which can be swung resiliently away from each other and thereby enable the surrounding portion to be mounted by a lateral insertion over the carton; the free ends of the wire hooks are joined after the mounting by hooking together respective bent out end portions of the free hook ends. By such a lateral insertion of the entire handle unit, it is easy to introduce the carrier head portion in the said cavity, but it is troublesome to have to carry out a wide resilient spreading of the wire hooks and a subsequent joining of their outer ends, and besides, such a joint will exhibit a certain tear risk.
Also juice cartons have been mentioned, whereby reference is made to cartons having that type of top closure which reveals itself as a flat carton top side with outwardly projecting, folded down triangular flaps at the opposed narrow sides. This carton type is also used extensively for wine. In this connection it is sufficient if the said carrier head portion is adapted so as to engage about the downfolded flap at the end of the top closure opposite to the opening end thereof, as a carrier engagement may then be established with the underside of the root area of the flap.
Also for such cartons, handle units have been developed, see WO 83/00852, which discloses a unit consisting of an upper carton surrounding ring having at one end a projection, in which a slot is provided for receiving the said triangular closure flap, while the projection continues downwardly in a handle portion having at its lower end an inwardly extending portion abutting the adjacent narrow side of the carton. The entire unit is separated in a joinable manner down through the handle portion, such that the separated parts are coherent with the respective opposed ends of the carton surrounding ring. For mounting this unit the surrounding ring, from a wide open position thereof, is closed around the carton until the two halfparts of the handle portion can be mutually joined. The slot forming part will hereby be introduced over or onto the triangular flap from opposite sides thereof, but this is a very troublesome manner of mounting the unit. It may well be achieved that the surrounding ring is tightened strongly about the carton by the wrapping on of the ring, but the mounting will be the more difficult the tighter the surrounding is, and in practice there is no need for any particularly tight squeezing of the carton.
With the use of the said surrounding rings there is connected a noticeable hygienic disadvantage, viz. in that they extend across the side of the carton located underneath the pouring opening of the carton. Fluid running down the carton side from this opening will, directly or through the capillary effect, intrude behind the ring portion covering that side, and such fluid will not be removed by wiping the carton side. Such an exterior fluid residue, e.g. of milk, may well give rise to bacteriological problems before the carton is emptied and removed from the normal area of use.